How To Play Classic Rock Riffs With Power Chords
In this lesson, we are going to learn how to play classic rock riffs with power chords. This is the fun of learning these types of chord shapes. Once you learn how to form them and move them around the fretboard, you’ll be able to play all kinds of cool rock riffs.
Rock Guitar 101
It is a great training method for getting started playing rock guitar. It is a simple 7-lesson method book that is easy to understand and provides quick results with full-color pictures and diagrams that anyone can learn from. especially if they have no prior music knowledge or training.
Rock Guitar 101 will teach you how to acquire the right tools, how to tune your guitar, easy to play chords, establish a rhythm, pick hand development, and play classic rock riffs. All this is an easy simple method for all beginners. Not to mention free video lessons to go with the book available on my YouTube channel. Which will allow for even easier learning and even quicker results.
By lesson 7 you should know
The tools that are needed to get started. This includes the right type of guitar (certain guitars are best for playing rock guitar) cable and amplifier. These three tools are vitally important as they set up the foundation for your whole learning journey.
How to tune the guitar with an electronic tuner (which is recommended to start) by knowing which one is best to choose, where to get it either online or off, and how to use it to tune your guitar.
You should have learned how to get a good solid rock tone which is also very important for this style of music. Plus additional training on how to get this out of a guitar effects pedal. This is an alternate way of getting your rock tone if you can’t get it out of the amp.
Easy rock chords
By this time you should know how to form your simple open and closed power chords which are the fundamental chord types for this style of music. Open and closed power chords are the easiest you can form and the most common for playing rock guitar.
After learning these, you should have learned how to switch between them and move them along the fretboard to create chord progressions that are the foundation of playing songs. As well as learning how to develop your hands and fingers to hold and move the chords better.
Establishing rhythm
Once you have gotten comfortable playing chords on the fretboard you then need to be able to establish a rhythm. This is something you should have down as well. Rhythm playing is the foundation for playing songs of any type in any style of music and rock music is no exception.
Being able to establish and hold rhythm is a very valuable skill to learn and develop and should not be overlooked. It is like the concrete foundation that holds up a house, but in this instance, it is the music that is being held up. This establishment of rhythm sets you up for what is coming next, an intro to lead guitar playing.
Intro to lead guitar playing
Since this is a starter book I don’t go into major detail about this but I think it is important to introduce you to the fundamentals of lead guitar playing in case in the future, you want to get into playing guitar solos. This can be done by learning the minor pentatonic scale.
The minor pentatonic scale is the one that all great guitar players of the past have used and should be learned by you. This scale is very versatile.
By this time you should have all that is stated above down physically and a well-rounded understanding of their concepts and principles. If you do, great we can proceed. If not I recommend you go back and get down what is needed to understand lesson 7. Playing classic rock riffs.
Lesson 7. Playing classic rock riffs
Rock riffs are a section of music that catches attention. It is usually a part of the song that repeats and sticks in people’s heads. It is usually this rock riff that makes people want to play guitar in the first place. That is why classic rock music is so appealing to rock guitar players. It has plenty of rock riffs to catch our attention.
So in this lesson, we are going to look at a couple of easy rock guitar riffs that will put all we’ve learned to use and allow us to play some music. What good is learning all the chords and putting in the hours of development if we can’t play songs? It makes no sense. Rock Guitar 101 is designed to get us developed to eventually have fun playing songs and here is where we are going to start.
Smoke on the water
This is the number one rock riff of all time so we will start here. I’ve written it in closed power chords so that it is easy to play. If you’ve done your homework, this should be quite easy to master.
This is the main riff of the song and is repeated several times. It is suggested that you listen to the song to get the timing down. Once you feel comfortable playing the riff, try playing it along with the song. This is a bit challenging at first but I guarantee you that it will pay huge dividends in the long run.
Highway To Hell
This is another classic guitar riff that is very recognizable and not too difficult to play. Although a bit harder than smoke on the water. I say this because of the timing that is needed to execute the song properly.
Once again I have presented this in an easy power chord format. This is originally played with natural chords and can be a bit tricky for a beginner. That is why I present it in this format. So that you can get used to playing your closed power chords.
As I mentioned before this is a nice riff to practice your timing skills. Notice the space between the first and second parts. Without this, the riff won’t sound right. So listen to the song and get down the groove. AC/DC is known for their groove and if you are ever to play their hot rocking songs, you need to master this. There is no exception.
Lesson conclusion
If you want to get started playing rock guitar or know anyone who does, Rock Guitar 101 is an excellent starter course. With everything you need to start hvoing fun. Provided you have the desire to want to do that.
With everything needed to get you progressing forward at a rapid rate with no previous music knowledge necessary. Once you get the fundamentals down you will be able to springboard from there. And in doing so you will build a skill set that can last you a lifetime. You might even be able to pass it along to someone you love in the future.
Free videos on YouTube
In addition to the book, you can also get a free video course on my YouTube channel of the same name as my website. Dwayne’s Guitar Lessons. Here you will find a video lesson for all the lessons in the book to help further your understanding and help you to get quicker results. And as always, if you need additional help feel free to reach out as I am always happy to help.
You can get this book on Amazon and contact me for guitar lessons at my website if you feel that they might help you. Guitar lessons are offered for students of all ages and skill levels. Customized lessons that cater to you individual interests. Be sure to let me know if you need help.
Best of luck and until the next lesson, take care.
Sincerely, Guitar teacher, Dwayne Jenkins
